In that unique time in the human experience which shall never come again, we lost something precious in The Garden of Eden. Its worth was beyond evaluation. It was the treasure of God’s intimate interpersonal friendship. The first couple experienced that warm, interactive, completely compatible and mutually fulfilling daily walk with God in real terms. But then, tragically, they naively traded it away.
The
aftermath of that loss reads this way in the Bible. “And,
they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the
day. And, Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the Garden.” Thus,
that former vibrant and comfortable interpersonal access to their loving Creator
became marred by feelings of angst, misgiving and distrust.
But
then, Jesus appeared in the compassionate timeline of God’s loving redemptive effort. He was introduced this way, both by the
prophet and again later in the New Testament.
“Behold, a virgin shall be with
child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is, God with us.”
“God
with us” – in its simplest terms, the redemptive mission of our Christ is to
put back that treasure which was lost in the Garden – the God with us. Indeed, the
redemptive theology surrounding Christ is, in reality, much less complicated
than we are often led to believe.
Ultimately, it is just about His divine commission to restore that lost
daily intimacy between God and mankind.
So,
as it works out, we really only pass over the bridge of religious practice on
the way to that divine intention. The Psalmist saw this transition which moves
us beyond the “tinishness” of mere religious
practice to a vibrant interpersonal relationship with God in these terms.
He
said, “Sacrifice and offering You did not
desire; my ears You have opened. Burnt
offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of
me. I delight to do your will, O my God;
and, Your law is within my heart.’”
Indeed,
the whole work of Christ, from Cross to Resurrection, is to restore and
consistently empower that mutually fulfilling daily closeness between God and
man. Christ’s Cross serves to
re-initiate the relationship. And then,
flowing out of His resurrection comes all the rest of what we need to
re-acquire that daily private-side relationship with God.
Indeed,
entirely owing to that resurrection which provided us with a Living Savior, believers
can now acquire an empowering access to Christ’s living character essence –
just as God promised we would throughout the Old and New Testament. Believers can, in these New Testament times, experience
a very real and wonderfully empowering Spiritual merger with the Living Christ.
This
merger is a thoroughly impactful character integration which truly transforms
the devoted believer’s own character essence and, in turn, his or her lifestyle
reality. And this Christ-enabled and Christ-sustained
personal transformation then becomes the durable core of our restored intimate daily
friendship with our loving Creator God.
Thus,
Christ’s ultimate redemptive mission is accomplished. That cherished interpersonal daily walk with
God is put back – only better, sustained in the absolute sufficiency of the
Living Christ.
So,
indeed, in the final analysis, our redemptive theology is neither so
complicated, nor so laughably simplistic as we are often led to believe. Rather, it is a grace-filled and beautifully
sophisticated understanding which easily and accurately communicates the
opportunity for the believer’s real and thorough newness of heart and life
through the Living Christ.
And
thus, simultaneously, that understanding also keenly exposes our modern “pop
fallacies” regarding the faith-walk. As
it turns out, the real treasure of our faith is not found in the feckless practice
of mere religion. Nor is the true prize obtained
merely through a brief Sunday morning concert moment.
The
true prize of our faith, God’s up-close companionship, is found in a Living Christ-brokered,
daily walk of discovery. It is a life-process of real and ongoing intellectual
and emotional exchange with our Heavenly Father throughout all of the changing
circumstances in our life. And, it is this
ever deepening journey of one-on-one companionship which simultaneously fulfills
God desire for intimacy with His people and cumulatively fills the human
experience with goodness, elevation and meaning.
Indeed,
the “promise land” of the Old
Testament is actually only an analogy for the “promise life” of these New Testament times. And, it is this restored, Living Christ-empowered
life experience which the prophet, Ezekiel, was simultaneously projecting when
he penned these words to the nation of Israel at God’s behest.
“For
I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from
all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A
new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh. And I will put my spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and
do them. And you
shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my
people, and I will be your God.”
